258 islam, politics and change
to combat the rule. In 2009, Violet Grey hosted a controversial activity,
Pemilihan Ratu Waria, a queer festival. Violet Grey had hidden its true
agenda and asked for approval from the Aceh Ulama Council and the
Sharia police to organise a music concert and a seminar for charity.
After the event, Violet Grey announced to the public who had won the
festival. Ulama and some hardline Islamist groups and Muslim student
organisations such as Hizbut Tahrir, fpi, ldk and kammi demanded the
dissolution of Violet Grey.⁴⁴
The two accounts below provide a more in-depth story and analysis
in terms of how specific groups of Acehnese express their opposition to
the administration of Sharia.
5 Challenging Arabisation through Arab Films
One of the unusual phenomena in Banda Aceh is that there is no public
cinema at all in the city. This is different from the capital cities of other
Indonesian provinces where watching films at cinemas is a regular feature
of urban lifestyles. For example, neighbouring cities such as Medan and
Padang have at least three cinemas each, generally in plazas and malls.
Banda Aceh, despite the development of various business projects after
the tsunami, has no cinema.
In the 1980s and 1990s, however, there were four popular cinemasin Banda Aceh. The oldest one was the Garuda Theatre located close to
the Blang Padang public playground. In fact, the Garuda Theatre was a
building for art performances and was one of the colonial legacies of
Banda Aceh. After independence, it became the first commercial public
cinema in town. In 2004, the building was hit by the tsunami. Now, it
has been rebuilt for other purposes, mainly for weddings, and there is
no regular schedule either for art performances or films. Further, there
were cinemas dedicated to the memory of the people of Banda Aceh,
gay, bisexual and transgender people (lgbt) in Aceh. Initially, this group was
introduced to the public in 2007 as an organisation focused on anti-hiv/aids
campaigns as well as disseminating information related to sexual and reproductive
health issues. It was supported by some international ngos such as Hivos, World
Vision and the National Commission on hiv-aids. Violet Grey has now shifted
its focus to human rights issues, especially advocating the rights of lesbians, gays
and transgenders in Aceh who face discrimination and intimidation from both
society and the authorities.
See http://www.antaranews.com/berita/1266144439/ulama-kecam-kontes-waria-aceh
(accessed 2 March 2011).